This has been a strange week for physical / virtual country relations. In a
series of news reports from around the globe, the interactions between the physical,
European country Germany, and the virtual, cyberspace country Second Life, have
been growing more warlike and antagonistic by the day.

A study released by digital census takers comScore shows that Germans
make up 16 per cent of Second Life residents, making them the largest
country of origin in that virtual world.

Between January and March, a 70 per cent population explosion of Deutschlanders
placed them above US residents, the former population leader, by approximately
2,000 people.

In March, about 1.3 million people logged into Second Life, according
to comScore. Of those people, 209k were German, 207k were from the US,
167k were in the Asia Pacific and 104k were from France.

The total population increased by 46 per cent from January to March.
Sixty one per cent hailed from Europe, and 19 per cent from North America.

This sudden influx of German residents into Second Life, to the point that
they eclipsed any other single natyionality, including the one native to the
developing company, Linden Labs, truly set the stage for the German government's
profound interest in the activities of their citizenry within this virtual space.

Second Life is being investigated by German police following allegations
that some members are trading child abuse images in the online world.

The investigation follows a report by a German TV news programme which
uncovered the trading group and members who pay for sex with virtual children.

The police are now trying to identify the Second Life members involved.

Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, said it would help identify users
and pass on details to prosecutors.

The investigation was carried out by Nick Schader from the Report Mainz
news programme who is also a member of Second Life.

Mr Schader was asked to pay to attend meetings where virtual and real
child pornography was being shown.

Members of this group also offered to put him in touch with traders of
real child pornography.

The investigation also uncovered so called "age play" groups
that revolve around the abuse of virtual children.

Information gathered during the report was passed to the prosecutor's
office in Halle who said it hoped to track down the German Second Life
user who shared the images of virtual child pornography.

Peter Vogt, the prosecutor in the Halle, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur
agency: "I assume we are going to catch this user fairly quickly."

Under Germany law possession of "virtual" child pornography
is punishable by up to three years in jail.

This is where things start to get sticky. Which actual set of laws is involved
here? Second Life is nominally based in the US, but has members from all over
the world. As the comScore report showed, hundreds of thousands from all different
countries with entirely different sets of laws.

Child pornography is truly reprehensible, of that there is no doubt. However,
it can occur anywhere, online or off. To take the stance of blaming the virtual
world management when it crops up there, is as wrong as it would be to directly
blame the german government for a stash in a private house in Berlin.

Another issue that rears up is what happens if the person responsible turns
out to physiccally reside in an Asian country where perhaps they have no laws
against this sort of thing - unlikely but it is possible. This kind of issue
crosses many physical country borders, even if it only crosses one virtual country
border.

Splinter Issues: Age Play Concerns

German prosecutors have launched an investigation to find anonymous participants
of the online computer game Second Life, who are reportedly buying sex
with other players posing as children, as well as offering child pornography
for sale.

Investigators in the city of Halle are acting on specific information
about a German Second Life player, or avatar, who put child pornography
images up for sale and paid for sex with underage players or players posing
as minors.

"We are trying to find out the identity of this person," Peter
Vogt, chief prosecutor from the central office against child pornography
told German television. " What is being offered is nothing short
of child pornography."

Those under 18 are banned from the adult area of Second Life and adults
are banned from the "Teen Area", but critics say in reality it is impossible
to check the ages of participants. Some players dress up as child figures,
but with no sexual motivation, purchasing "skins" to make them look like
minors. But so-called "age play", in which players request sex with other
players who dress up as child avatars, has encouraged a growth in players
posing as children in order to make money.

Despite Second Life not allowing membership to the main world, to anyone below
the age of 18, allegations of 'child rape' have started to circulate, based
on sexual relations between adult avatars anbd child avatars - despite both
sides being adults.

The first question that has to be asked at this point, is how can a sexual
act that takes place in a graphics and text VR world - one with no haptic feedback,
ergo no actual sex organ use - and one in which both parties are consentual,
and over the age of consent for their respective physical countries be considered
'child rape' in any way, shape or form?

Second Life Actions

Linden Lab has no way to verify ageuntil now, that is. The company
announced via its blog late last week that they will "shortly"
begin testing an age and identity verification system that will require
residents to provide some sort of real-life proof of their age in order
to access "mature" content in the virtual world. Residents who
wish to verify their age in Second Life will be required to pay an unspecified
fee and provide information such as name, date of birth, address, passport,
the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, or other national
ID numbers.

Previous to this announcement, residents of Second Life were required
to be over 18 in order to access the virtual environment at all.

However, the ages of the participants were self-reported, and as Second
Life has become more popular, more children have made their way into the
game. Although the Second Life team closes the accounts of those who are
reported to be under 18, the company writes that "as the community
grows and the attractions of Second Life become more widely known, weve
decided to add an additional layer of protection."

Members who "own" land that hosts adult content will be required
to flag it as such. The flag will then prevent anyone who has not verified
themselves with the system as over 18 from entering. "Landowners
are morally and legally responsible for the content displayed and the
behavior taking place on their land," the company writes. There are
no explicit guidelines defining adult content, and the blog posting acknowledges
that they will rely on some degree of self-regulation in this area. "If
Residents and businesses attempt to violate this rule, we expect that
such behavior will be reported by the community... in the event we encounter
abuses of self-regulation, Second Life may have to require age-verification
throughout the world. We hope that does not happen."

In order to cater to the younger population, Linden Lab has created Teen
Second Life for those under 18. Teen Second Life will be closed off to
anyone who is over 18, and the teens in the virtual world will not be
allowed out into the rest of Second Life.

Linden Lab is careful to point out that members will not be required
to verify their age in order to get in. Those members who wish to stay
"anonymous" and keep their identities to themselves will still
be able to wander around in the regular Second Life, but not access the
adult areas, or the "under 18" areas, for that matter.

Ultimately, the new age verification rules will split up Second Life
into a teen level, a "regular" Second Life level, and a adult
level. Some critics have called into question the effectiveness of an
age verification measure, arguing that children will still be able to
gain access to adult content through the self-regulating nature of the
adult filter, thereby defeating the entire purpose of the verification
process. It also does not address the issue of members verifying themselves
and then selling the account to someone else who is not able to be verified.

For its part though, Linden Lab can point to its efforts, and at least
say "we tried" the next time a scandal hits.

The end result of this particular strife between the physical and virtual worlds
is that Second Life has relented to what is in effect, an utterly unwieldy and
unworkable 'age verification system', that is easily bypassed. Nothing is really
solved, since the virtual world was not at fault in the first place.

This marks a continuing trend to legislate the virtual, based on the actions
of a few in the physical.

Surely it would make more sense to punish the criminals themselves, rather
than blaming the environment for actions of people beyond it's control?